History - Sarah Caroline Williams was the fourth plural wife of John D. Lee. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when quite young, came to Nauvoo in 43. Caroline traveled from Tennessee to Nauvoo with the William Pace family. The Paces were from the same general area as the Williams family, and like Caroline, they had been converted through the efforts of John D. Lee.

In Nauvoo she lived with the Lee family. John wrote that Caroline was "adopted" into his family on April 19, 1844. By that he meant that she was sealed to him as a plural wife.

Less than a year later, the Mormons abandoned the city of Nauvoo. She was among the Lee family members who crossed the river on March 4, 1846. She left Nauvoo with the first company of Saints in 46. Before leaving Nauvoo she was sealed to John D. Lee.

Just eleven days after Lee returned from his mission to Santa Fe, Caroline went back to the settlements in Missouri with her Aunt Marcia Allen.

Lee was assigned to stay at Summer Quarters and grow corn. During that time he received word occasionally of Caroline's welfare and life with Aunt Marcia in the settlements. Just two months following her departure, he received information from Missouri by a teamster that "Caroline was doing well." A month later he received a letter from Sister Allen that Caroline was well.

Shortly after the Lee family took their 1848 departure for the Salt Lake Valley, Caroline, it is believed, went back to Tennessee and there met and married a man by the name of James Thompson. They later had a child on April 26, 1849 while living in Cannon County, Tennessee.

In her life story Caroline nowhere mentioned those years. She only said "... Have passed throu meny triles." In 1851 came to Salt Lake. She rejoined the Lee family as John D. Lee's wife and moved south with the rest of the family to Parowan in 1852. John D. Lee grew very fond of the boy, James Thompson, and often referred to him in his journals as his stepson.

Caroline's first child by John D. Lee, Harvey Parley Lee, was born October 1, 1852 at Parowan. He was the first of eleven born to them over the next twenty years. She had her last child while living at Kanab, Utah at the age of forty-two. Two of her children, George Albert and Margaret Ann, died at Fort Harmony when the walls collapsed during the storms of 1862.

Caroline was often mentioned in Lee's journals during the 1860's, accompanying him on visits to various settlements in southern Utah. When the Lees moved to Skutumpah, she and her family were there.

In 1871 because of confiscatory action taken by the federal government against individuals practicing polygamy, church authorities sent advice to such members throughout the territory to deed all property over to their wives and John did that.

When the family moved to the Colorado River, Caroline remained in Kanab where she bore her last child. She later moved into the home in Panguitch deeded to her by John where she was living when he was captured by federal marshals. When he was imprisoned, she was faithful in corresponding and continued to write and encourage him until his execution in 1877.

Four years after his death, Caroline, fifty-one years old, married William Young, a member of the LDS Church. The following year they moved to the Gila Valley in Arizona. She had commenced keeping records in a daily journal while living in Utah. She continued after moving to Arizona:

"I was with the sick a greate deele of my time. it seems to be my mission here on earth. My labor commenced in Arizona in 1882 as a midwife...and don much of the same labor in Utah before I left thear, but have lost my record."

She followed that explanation with sixty pages of names and dates of those whom she attended in her work. These services were performed in the Pima-Central-Thatcher areas of Graham County. "Elizabeth R., daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Cluff, bornd March 16th at seven o'clock in the morning at Central, 1885...James W., son of Washington and Lena Jolley was bornd Feb. 7, 1887 at nine o'clock at knight at Thatcher."

Following the death of her husband in 1890, she moved back to Panguitch: "i went to Panguitch and tuck up my labors amoung the sick women and other duties in keeping house for my youngest son." She later lived a few years with some of her children in La Plata, New Mexico, then went back to Panguitch.

"August 27, 1902...Ate breakfast with my daughter and the brethren [visiting general authorities of the church during Stake Conference]. President Roberson tuck me back to Sister Joness and came back for Brother Cimble [J. Golden Kimball]. Sister Jones lingered along until about seven o'clock and through the mercy of the Lord and the assistance of Sister Williams and myself she was delivered of a son. I staid the rest of the night. the 29th came home this morning, milked, feed my chickens then went back...helped to fix her bed, then came home to attend to my work."

In the last years of her life, she continued in much the same manner. "In the year 1907 in my 77th year I put Bishop Stewart[s] wife to bed on the 6 of April with a lovely daughter."

The last entry in her journal was made "25 Dec 1907 put Seth Jacobs wife to bed with a fine son."

Caroline passed away about that time. Manetta Prince Henrie gave her death as February 16, 1907, the date carved on her tombstone in Torrey, Utah. Since Caroline was still writing on December 25, 1907, that was apparently incorrect. It is likely that she died on February 16, 1908.

Though she had no formal education, Sarah Caroline Williams lived a remarkably productive life, raising twelve children almost single-handedly and giving of herself to others over many years. Hundreds of those whom she served remembered her kind ministrations. Whatever the date of her departure from this life, she must have made the transition with the conviction that she had done her best, lived an exemplary life, and was ready to meet whatever lay beyond the veil.